A Canadian government bill to legalise euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide has been opposed by the country’s bishops, who have called it “an affront to human dignity, an erosion of human solidarity and a danger to all vulnerable persons”.
Among those endangered by the bill, the bishops said, are the elderly, infirm, disabled and sick, many of whom are already isolated and marginalised.
Bill C-14 spells out conditions under which seriously ill or dying competent adult Canadians may seek medical help to end their lives. It follows a Supreme Court of Canada decision to overturn a 1993 ban on physician-assisted suicide.
The Canadian bishops’ conference described the bill as “a violation of the sacrosanct duty of health care providers to heal and the responsibility of legislators and citizens to assure and provide protection for all, especially those persons most at risk”. They urged elected officials to “consistently defend and protect the lives of all”, support efforts to guarantee accessible home care and palliative care, and to protect conscience rights of health care providers and institutions.
